Pedagogical Diary – More than a Formative Assessment Tool in Initial Teacher Training?

The theoretical/practical interest in identifying significant ways to perform formative evaluation in education is highly topical. Researchers/practitioners are constantly looking for new ways to achieve it, while also identifying and/or structuring appropriate tools. The present study proposes a quantitative-qualitative analysis of a set of pedagogical diaries in terms of the following dimensions: 1. the formative aspect of the method in teacher initial training; 2. the continuous evaluation process carried out at a discipline in the field of Education sciences, by means of the pedagogical diary; 3. practical application of the pedagogical diary in the process of building 21st-century competences. The research group comprised 65 1st-year students attending the initial training for the teaching career. The aim of this study is to highlight how the pedagogical diary may contribute to the continuous assessment of students attending the initial teacher training process and their growing aware of their own universe of expectations and states related to learning. The novelty of this approach is identifying the expectations, concerns and states of students before and after studying a discipline in the field of Education sciences. The results obtained in the pre- and post-analysis stage have generated conclusions on the possibility of using the pedagogical diary in a way complementary to the one already known and used, as well as on the value of this approach.